It is a well-known fact that too many recordable safety incidents will result in the good people from OSHA showing up to hang around and ask a lot of questions. Nobody wants to get hurt on the job. Everyone at the facility has some other place to be once their shift is over, and many employees have family waiting for them. With that being said, why would people continue to operate poorly maintained manufacturing equipment and material-handling machinery? 

The Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) brings industrial process-heating professionals together to provide combustion and safety education for the industry each and every fall. This year will look different, but IHEA will still deliver essential content through a virtual platform. The IHEA Virtual Fall Seminars will be held over two consecutive weeks in November from Wednesday to Friday each week. Each day will consist of three presentations from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (EST). The agendas for the virtual seminars contain vital topics that have been adapted to online versions so attendees can still get the information they need whether they are working from home or in the office. 

Quintus Technologies delivered what it says is the world’s fastest fan-driven hot isostatic press (HIP) to Italy’s PRES-X, a start-up established to meet the post-production needs of 3D-printed metal components. The HIP’s high-pressure heat-treatment (HPHT) capability makes it possible to eliminate several operations in the AM production line. With Quintus’s proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) technology, a cooling rate of 1500K/minute can be achieved while minimizing thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth, producing finished 3D-printed parts with optimal material properties.

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. shipped a high-temperature box furnace to a government defense organization located in the southeastern United States. The medium-sized furnace will be used for military ceramic-composite development along with research and development for other components. The furnace, which has a work zone of 24 inches wide x 18 inches high x 36 inches deep, is rated for continuous operating temperatures up to 2500°F (1371°C). It comes equipped with silicon-carbide heating elements for high-temperature operation.

A new IoT (Internet of Things) predictive maintenance system is available on industrial ovens manufactured by Wisconsin Oven.

The additive-manufacturing (AM) process as a whole involves turning 3-D CAD files on computers into finished products layer by layer –although AM specifically relates to the construction part of that process. What happens after the printing phase has concluded also matters, however, in order to ensure that products are ready for use. 

The recent pandemic forced many companies into survival mode: reducing head-count, cutting costs where possible and establishing new health and safety protocols, all while trying their best to carry on with business as usual. But what about the next crisis?

At the time that I started working on the background for this article, I thought, “I wonder what Wikipedia says about steam?” According to Wikipedia, steam is water in the gas phase commonly formed by boiling or evaporating water. Steam and the steam engine played a central role in the Industrial Revolution, with the modern steam engines generating more than 80% of the world’s electricity.

Over the past few decades, significant strides have been made to increase the life cycle of components that are to be used at high temperatures. Today, there are new alloys that can result in another doubling (or more) of the component life at far less the doubling of cost.

Rex Heat Treat, a commercial heat treater specializing in the aerospace market, became the first company to install and commission SECO/WARWICK’s new Super IQ gas carburizing furnace. The hybrid system combines a conventional furnace and a vacuum furnace in one unit. Rex Heat Treat has commissioned several vacuum furnaces over the past several years at its Lansdale, Pa., location as part of a plant modernization initiative. The new furnace will allow the heat treater to upgrade its through-hardening and carburizing capabilities alongside its legacy harden and temper furnaces while using the existing loader, baskets and washing system.